![]() ![]() That sounds quite similar to what the Internet is saying. An oil separator will separate those particles, helping your engine stay clean.” Blow-by flowing through the PCV or CCV (crankcase ventilation) system can coat the internal portion of your intake or intercooler system, cause excessive oil/carbon buildup on your intake valves, and burn in the combustion chamber. First, we will ask John Petty, Product Manager at Mishimoto Automotive.Īccording to Petty, “Every engine is susceptible to blow-by from the piston rings. So, we’re going to chat with some people who know what they are talking about. It probably shouldn’t be trusted without verification. (Photo: Anthony Topalian)īut this opinion is just the opinion of the Internet. So, the manufacturers don’t include an oil catch can.įor direct-injected turbocharged cars driven aggressively with their engines at high engine speeds for long periods, like the FordMuscle project Fiesta ST autocross car, the engines can benefit from an oil catch can to keep oil from being sucked back into the intake. To ask someone to remember to drain their oil catch can occasionally is an unreasonable request for the general driving public. I know this may come to a shock to some of you, but cars are designed for the lowest common denominator. ![]() The reason is that oil catch cans need to be drained, meaning continuous maintenance from the vehicle owner. It sounds like a good idea to us, but the obvious next question is this: If this is such a simple remedy, why doesn’t my car come with it?” The oil catch can’s job is to separate the oil from the air, trap the oil, and just let air and its associated pressure go back into the engine’s intake. This simple device is placed between the ventilation line from the crankcase and the line going back into the intake. The solution to keeping this PCV junk from getting into the intake of a vehicle, while not going back to the stone ages of just breathing that pollution into the environment, is a baffled oil catch can. The fuel goes directly into the cylinder when the valve is closed, meaning nothing but air and PCV contaminants are hitting the top of the valve. But now with direct injection engines, that cleaning action isn’t happening anymore. The issue of deposits wasn’t that big of a deal on the intake valves, because the fuel, being mixed from the fuel injectors, helped clean the valves. Those deposits would land on the inside of the intake manifold and the intake valves (where we can’t see it or spray brake cleaner). Simply spraying down the throttle body with some brake cleaner usually fixed it, but the real problem was deeper in the engine. It was coming from the PCV line (which enters the intake tract after the air filter). Over time, people would start to see their throttle body was getting covered in oil and crud. When PCV was considered normal and all the rage for emissions, fuel-injection engines essentially mixed fresh air and fuel with the noxious junk coming from the PCV back into the engine. And newer modern engines are extremely unhappy about it. ![]() The answer is no, the engine isn’t that happy about recirculating this pressure and it’s associated contaminates from the crankcase. There is this thing called the environment, and even gearheads want to protect it these days. As this air was released from the engine, it smelled like burnt oil (surprise, surprise, right?).īesides the olfactory assault, the mixture isn’t exactly what we are looking to just spill out into the world’ it’s called pollution. The inside of the crankcase is an insane mix of oil and air mixed with other contaminants. To solve this problem back in the day, engineers utilized something they called a “road draft tube.” It was simply a tube that allowed this pressure to escape the crankcase. As blow-by gets past the piston rings into the crankcase, it pressurizes that space, which makes it harder for the pistons to move up and down, harming performance. The crankcase is just a place to store oil and keep things nice and lubricated as the connecting rods move up and down on the spinning crank. That pressure then finds its way into the crankcase. However, the process isn’t perfect, and there is always just a little “blow-by,” where the piston rings don’t capture all of the pressure from the explosion. Our internal combustion engines ignite these little explosions that push down our pistons, thus turning the crankshaft and allowing us to move on down the road (thankfully keeping me from having to walk places). ![]()
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